iPhone or Galaxy

21st July: to swap or not

22nd July: calendar, contacts and tasks integration

25th July: Photo Stream replacement

20th August: Applications

5th September: Content

13th September: Feel

13/9: have been using the S3 for a while now and have to say that I much prefer the feel of it to the iPhone. Lot depends on the size of your hands I guess but the additional width and length fit my hand much better and the fact that it is slim doesn’t mean that my hand ends up wrapping round the screen as it does on the iPhone.

Have to say breathed a sigh of relief last night when they announced the iPhone 5 which is really the same old story: thinner, lighter, faster with a marginally larger screen. Nothing at all that made me regret not waiting and nothing that tempts me back to the iPhone from the S3.

5/9: Big issue for anybody that is thinking of switching from the iPhone to an Android has to be the reduced integration with the likes of iTunes and iPhoto. There are applications that will sync your content but personally I have found them all a little lacking. They have either not quite worked, worked well for some applications but not others.

As I am not that much of an iPhoto or iTunes user I decided that the most efficient approach for me was simply to drag the content over to the mini SD card.

What I do is plug the mini SD card into the Mac Pro and drag over the music that I want on the Android (which isn’t much at all as my lifestyle really doesn’t involve using the phone to listen to music as I have an iPod Touch in the van with my whole library on and that is the only time I listen to music other than on an occasional run or bike ride in which case the iPod Nano suffices).

Same really with the photos in iPhoto. I have it set up so any photos I take with the S3 or S2 are uploaded to Dropbox and then Automator adds them to iPhoto where I can tag them and add them to my Smart Albums. Then I just select all in the Smart Album, right click to copy and paste into the folder of the same name on the mini SD card, and heh presto the photo albums that I want from iPhoto are on my Android.

Works really well for me and I reckon is a lot easier and more reliable than any of the sync applications that I have looked at.

20/8: I guess like most the true strength of the ‘smartphone’ lies in the applications that you use it for, and this then makes it a truly subjective and personal appeal.

Thinking about how best to present this I decided that the best way was to list the applications that I had on the iPhone and indicate if they the same, replaced, or ignored on the Samsung as I took the opportunity for a bit of a cull.

The reality is that I have a very limited use for the Smartphone so tend to use a few applications a lot:

Evernote: Android version is as good
Keynote: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Text Expander: no direct replacement on Android but to be honest very rarely used on iPhone. Have installed Smart Keyboard Pro as an alternative
Numbers: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Pages: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Wordpress: Android version is better
Pimp My Screen: not replaced
iMovie: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Social Cam: never used so not replaced but their is an Android version
BBC News: Android version effectively the same
Sky News: Android version effectively the same
EyeTV 3G: Android version effectively the same
Netflix: Android version effectively the same
Remote: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Sky+: Android version effectively the same
Sky Go: Android version effectively the same
Weather Live: not available so replaced with Weather Pro which I don’t think as good but does what I need well enough
BBC iPlayer: Android version effectively the same
Team Viewer: not replaced as never used
PayPal: Android version effectively the same
Currency: Android version effectively the same
FTP OnTheGo: not replaced as never used
Translate: Google app so better on the Android
i-Helicopter: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Shazam: not replaced as never used
Kindle: Android version effectively the same
TuneIn Radio: Android version effectively the same
You Tube: Android version effectively the same
iPhoto: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
iDisk: no longer relevant
Wallet: not replaced as never used
Dropbox: Android version effectively the same
iMDB: Android version effectively the same
Trip Advisor: not replaced as never used
Whats App: Android version effectively the same
Viber: Android version effectively the same
Google Drive: Android version much better
TomTom: not available but have installed nDrive and it is good enough
Twitter: Android version effectively the same
Facebook: Android version effectively the same
Google +: Android version effectively the same
Bambuser: Android version effectively the same
QIK: not replaced as never used
Messenger: decided not to replace as too confusing having messages in two places!
LinkedIn: Android version effectively the same
Pinterest: Android version effectively the same
TwitPic: Android version effectively the same
Skype: Android version effectively the same
Pages: Apple only so not replaced, although to be honest never used on iPhone & still have on iPad
Chrome: Android version effectively the same
FeedlerPro: replaced with gReader Pro which is good enough

25/7: Of less concern, but a nice to have, is the Photo Stream function which uses iCloud to sync your latest photos from your iPhone, iPod or iPad to your iPhoto account. It is possible though to replace this on the Android through a combination of a Dropbox account and a Automator work flow by following these instructions

22/7: Big concern for me is going to be the integration with iCloud, specifically Calendar and Contacts.

With respect to the Contacts Lifehacker sorted that out with a reminder that you can synch the local version of your contacts on your Mac with your gmail account. Not something that I had done before and my gmail account needed some tidying up, but easily sorted. Have to say though that the syncing doesn’t seem to work very well. I deleted all my old gmail contacts and imported my Address Book as a vCard file which was fine, but subsequent additions to the Address Book haven’t synced with the Google Contacts yet!

The issue is a conflict between iCloud and Google Sync basically. Disable iCloud for contacts and follow these set up instructions for your iPad, iPod and iPhone. You will probably need to redo your Groups though so make a note!

I was already using SmoothSync for Cloud Calendar to sync my calendar and this works a treat. If interested they also do a SmoothSync for Cloud Contacts.

As for tasks I have never been a fan of the Reminders offering from Apple so took little convincing to swap over to tasks opting for Google Tasks Organiser on the Samsung, GoTasks on the Mac Pro, iMac and MacBook Pro and gTasks HD on the iPad, iPhone and iPod (should point out out at this stage as to ensure a fair trial I have decided that I will run the iPhone and Samsung in parallel for a while, and Sands will be keeping her iPhone but I like our technology and applications to be as similar as possible).

Have to say was a lot less painless than I thought it would be! And ….. the more I look at Google applications and services the more impressed I am.

21/7: Am seriously tempted to switch to the Samsung Galaxy SIII from my current iPhone 4.

While I still like the iPhone it doesn’t ‘wow’ me in anyway. I had the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and currently the iPhone 4. Truth be told I have never been that keen on the actual phone as a phone, and personally I think the form factor is out dated now, especially the size!

On the plus side the integration with my other Apple stuff is brilliant and apps like Remote are very handy.

I recently picked up a Samsung SII for use in the UK on our cat and dog transports and have grown to like it. The size in particular I find suits my hand (and eye sight) better, and while it has taken some getting used to I prefer the Mail application far more.

IF I swap I will lose the integration and photo stream etc, but as I have an iPad will that be a problem?

The apps that I use the most include Evernote, Google Drive, WordPress, Facebook, Twitter etc. They are the same or better on the Android.

My plan is this. I am going to use the Samsung over the summer. Really get used to it, learn in depth what it can do, see how I feel without an iPhone in my bag.

After 5 years it will be strange, but after 5 years maybe it is just time for a change and to not be tied so much to one brand?

So over the summer I am going to chart my progress and share it here.

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